The technical and legal definition most often used for Assistive Technology is …

“…any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially or off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.”

I prefer a simpler and more general definition.

“…technology that improves the functional ability of anyone who needs it.” (from Ira Socol, if I’m not mistaken)

Anyone may benefit from the use of assistive technology, whether or not he or she has a diagnosed “disability”. For example, someone may  just not be a very good reader. Maybe he reads slowly or struggles to retain what is read. In fact, this describes my own lack of reading proficiency. Text-to-speech is extremely valuable for me when I really want to retain what I read. Technology that enlarges the font, widens the margins, or eliminates distracting clutter from a page can also improve my ‘functional ability’ to read.

In my view, assistive technology can be divided roughly into two categories. These are not mutually exclusive, but on one side is specialized assistive technology required by a relatively small number of individuals. This would include technology that makes speech possible for someone who cannot use his or her natural voice, or tools that enable someone who can’t use his or her hands to access a computer keyboard.

The second category of AT is technology that benefits a much larger proportion of the population. This larger category of AT would include such supports as text-to-speech, word prediction, speech recognition, or multimedia alternatives to text that can help anyone who struggles with reading and/or writing. There are countless learners in classrooms everywhere who may or may not have diagnosed “disabilities” who benefit greatly from access to what I refer to simply as “technology that helps”. I believe this is technology that should be made available to all learners. Much of this sort of technology has become ubiquitous, so there is no excuse for not introducing it to all learners.

Jim Luther’s list of ‘Top Tools for Tight Times’ lists free specialized assistive technology as well as technology that can be helpful for large numbers of learners.

Jim Luther has organized an extensive list of  AT Freeware into a beautifully organized “mind map” that enables the user to view available options at a glance. Software titles are not linked, but it is easy to enter the names as search terms into your preferred search engine. The screen shots below show how Jim’s list of AT has been organized.

In terms of built in accessibility, Apple has raised the bar considerably in iOS5. The new feature that I believe will be most helpful to the greatest number of users is Speak Selection. This will read aloud any selected text — in a web article, a text editor, an email, in Twitter, in text messages, or just about anywhere.  It isn’t perfect.  For example,  Speak Selection won’t read in Facebook.  Still, I believe this feature of iOS5 will be incredibly helpful to countless people who struggle with text.

I can’t understand why this incredibly useful feature isn’t turned on by default.  Unfortunately, you have to know that Speak Selection exists, and you then have to turn it on.  Here’s how you do that on an iPhone 4 that is running iOS5.  The process will be almost the same on other iDevices.

• Open Settings, scroll down and select General

• Scroll down and select Accessibility, then select Speak Selection

• Turn Speak Selection on and set the Speaking Rate

Once Speak Selection has been turned on, simply hold your finger on whatever it is you wish to read until given the option of selecting, move the frame to enclose whatever you want read, and then click on ‘Speak’ to hear it read aloud.

It is worth noting that Define is another helpful feature that is new in iOS5.  This is available whether Speak Selection is turned on or not.  Both features, however, are made available in exactly the same way.  When a single word is selected, you are offered a Define button.  When Speak Selection is turned on, ‘Define’ is offered at the same time as ‘Speak’, as shown below.  Clicking on the ‘Define’ button brings up a definition for the word, as is also shown below.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to use Speak Selection to read the dictionary definitions.

Finally, here’s a video by iGuitardude2477 that shows much of what I’ve shown here in words and pictures.

[eType is another option for free word prediction that you may wish to check out. I wrote about it HERE.]

Last month I wrote about MyStudyBar, a suite of literacy tools for the PC. This loads as a floating toolbar so the tools can be available to the user from within any program.  The toolbar can be downloaded and run from a USB flash drive on any computer.  This week, Craig Mill of RSC, has announced the release of Version 2 of MyStudyBar.

In this post, I want to draw attention to the powerful free word prediction application, ‘LetMeType’, that is part of MyStudyBar.  I’ve long been eager to know of effective free word prediction; and this seems to fill the bill.  Word prediction is a tool that I believe ought to be introduced to all learners.  Typically, only individuals with identified learning difficulties are given the opportunity to use it, but there are many others who would find word prediction helpful!

I’ve embedded Craig Mill’s tutorial screencast about ‘LetMeType’ here because I couldn’t possibly do a better job of describing it. I recommend that you view the video in full screen mode.

I want to share a video put together by one of the teachers who was enrolled in our course.  Myriah relates her personal journey in overcoming some of her learning challenges.  I find the arrogant ignorance of some of Myriah’s college teachers appalling.  How do you respond?

Celebrating Diversity from myriahmichaux on Vimeo.

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners.

About 3 years ago, my son told me I should get with the program and switch to Firefox. Since then, I’ve become a diehard fan and promoter of the browser. Because I work in the field of assistive technology, I especially appreciate the add-ons that have been written for Firefox to make the internet more accessible for people with special challenges. I’ve written here about CLiCkSpeak, FireVox, and Mouse Gestures. Today I’m highlighting a website whose sole focus is the accessiblity features of Firefox.

Access Firefox The raison d’etre for this site is clearly stated in its tagline: “Because the Internet is for everyone.” That resonates with me. The internet has created gateways to the world and facilitated connections that simply had not been available to many people with special needs before.

Access Firefox has catologued a significant list of Firefox extensions and themes that enhance Firefox accessiblity. The site offers assistance for anyone who needs to figure out how to download and install these add-ons. Access Firefox is also doing its bit to promote ongoing development of add-ons that facilitae access.

Ken Saunders, the site’s creator, is legally blind; and the majority of resources listed on Access Firefox are for individuals who are either blind or who have low vision. CLiCkSpeak, however, is an example of an add-on for sighted individuals with reading challenges. Mouse Gestures is an add-on that makes the internet accessible to individuals with physical challenges that keep them from using a typical hand-operated mouse.

The accessibility features that are being written for Firefox illustrate the power of open source software and of communities that form in response to specific needs.

SENSwitcher (online resource) is a suite of 132 activities designed to help teach computer skills to people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, especially those who need to develop skills with alternative input devices. These activities target skills sequentially, from purely experiential through cause and effect, switch building, timed activation, targeting and row scanning.

The activities have been developed by InclusiveTechnology and implementation strategies have been prepared by the folks at Priory Woods. This systematic set of activities have been designed to be used online or downloaded to be used offline. We have experienced difficulties in installing the programs after downloading them, but they work fine online. SENSwitcher, along with support material, can be found at Northern Grid.

SENSwitcher runs in both Windows and Mac.